Nissan Micra May Need Another Ten Years To Get Propilot Autonomous Tech

Bringing a luxurious feature like Propilot autonomous technology to the lowest car in the bracket might take time.

Nissan Micra, the entry level car from the auto brand will receive the feature in another years, by 2026.

Balancing cost and delivering the latest technologies to the average customer is a tough task. Automobile manufacturers usually segregate the segment by providing entry level cheap cars and reserving the top end components for the top of the trimline variants. However, the same cannot be done for the electrified motors or the self-driving technology. They are supposed to be rolled out to the masses so that brands can make a profit out of it.

Stewart Callegari, head of Nissan said that the propilot autonomous technology is coming to the high end 2017 Qashqai. While it is easy to incorporate it on the pricier models, it will take a decade for the same to be rolled out to the Micra. The model which is priced much lower when compared to the Qashqai will receive the same kind of tech in the year 2026.

“The present situation of the B-segment is very constrained. It might take some time for us to bring something like the Propilot to the segment. The manual gearbox models in the segment are predominantly purchased by price conscious buyers. It is entirely driven by the price tag which will change in time. It is when we can roll out something futuristic in cars like the Micra,” said Callegari.

Multiple functions can be handled by the Propilot feature in Nissan models. The autonomous system can control the position of the car’s steering and manage the brakes without any human intervention. It can automatically adjust the speed of the vehicle and apply brake at the right moment based on the type of the road. Multi-lane function will be added to the setup by the year 2018.

Despite the rise of autonomous technology, top engineers at Nissan is keen on retaining driver interaction in higher end models. They believe that customers want to be in control of the car to experience it to the core. At the same time, Nissan has been working on autonomous tech since 1990 and it enables them to quickly adapt to the changing times to offer the same to people who prefer to simply relax until they reach their destination, Callegari added.